Older patients are more likely to die following a short hospital stay for a hip fracture, new research shows.
Hip fractures in the elderly are a major cause of disability and associated with an increased risk of death.
A team of researchers, led by Peter Nordström at Umeå University, Sweden, examined the effect of the length of stay in hospital on the risk of death following a hip fracture among older persons.
They looked at 116,111 Swedish residents, aged 50 years and over, who had been admitted to a hospital with a hip fracture between 2006 and 2012.
Results showed that the average length of stay in hospital decreased from 14.2 days in 2006 to 11.6 days in 2012.
Patients who stayed in hospital for up to five days had twice the risk of death compared with patients staying 15 days or more.
